KARACHI, Aug 25: A traffic police constable and a young man were gunned down in separate incidents of firing in different areas of the city on Saturday in what appeared to be part of the recent wave of killings on sectarian grounds that also sparked tension in one of the neighbourhoods, police and a religious party said.

The police said the motive for both killings was sectarian.

In the first incident armed riders targeted a traffic police constable in Baldia Town early in the morning when he was riding a motorcycle to work. The area police said 48-year-old Gohar Abbas was hit by three bullets and badly wounded.

“He was riding to work when intercepted by two men on a motorbike at Baldia No 5,” said Inspector Zafar Iqbal, the SHO of the Baldia Town police station. “The attackers used a 9mm-bore pistol and sped away after firing at home. The wounded constable was shifted to the Civil Hospital Karachi, where he died after two hours during treatment.”

He said the victim was posted at the Preedy police station and originally hailed from Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The father of three, he had been in the Sindh police for the past more than two decades, he added.

“His younger brother, who was associated with a student organisation, was also killed in the same way a few years ago. We don’t think there was any reason other than sectarian behind this attack,” he added.

As the police in Baldia Town remained unable to trace the suspects behind the killing, gunmen spotted and struck a young man in Rizvia Society in the evening.

“The victim Syed Faraz Ali was at a mechanic’s shop near his home in Rizvia Society where two men on a motorbike emerged,” said an official at the Rizvia police station. “One of the riders got off the motorbike and fired at Faraz before riding away with his aide. The victim, hit by four bullets, died on the spot.”

The 27-year-old was the father of an infant girl and employed with an industrial unit in the Bin Qasim area. The firing sowed fear in the densely-populated locality where random gunfire following the incident forced the traders to pull down shutters and left only thin traffic on the main roads.

Though the police claimed the situation was controlled within an hour, life remained suspended even after sunset. The fresh episodes of killing on sectarian grounds further heightened the sense of insecurity among the Karachiites.

A spokesman for the Majlis-i-Wahdat-i-Muslimeen said the victim was a member of the organisation’s working committee and was killed only for that reason.

“This is sheer brutality,” the spokesman quoted the party’s Karachi chief Syed Muhammad Mehdi as saying. “We strongly condemn the killings and continuing violence against the particular community. The government and the security administration must move immediately and fast to maintain sectarian harmony.”